Free African Society
Free African Society
The Free African Society was founded on April 12, 1787, by Richard Allen (1760-1831) and Absalom Jones (1746-1818), as a nondenominational mutual aid society and the first dedicated to serving Philadelphia’s burgeoning free black community. The Free African Society emerged from discussions among Allen, Jones, and other men in early 1786, when Allen was leading prayer meetings and early-morning services for black congregants of St. George’s Methodist Church.
Concerned that the majority of Philadelphia’s black community was illiterate and did not go to church, these men decided to form a nondenominational, religious society to promote religion and literacy, as well as assisting members’ families to help cover the costs of burial after a member’s death.
Allen and Jones had originally envisioned the organization as a religious society, but they found that the group was too small and contained people with different religious beliefs. Most members of the group were affiliated with the Episcopal Church, but Allen and others were staunch Methodists. Despite their strong religious affiliations, the founders of the FAS decided against forming a strictly religious organization because prevailing African American and white sentiment generally did not favour the establishment of a separate African American church. The group, however, did require members to adhere to a strong sense of morality, and those engaging in immoral behaviour, such as adultery, risked being expelled.
Members paid dues out of which funds were disbursed to assist the needy. Members in good standing could expect several benefits from the mutual aid fund. Particularly in the first years of the society, important aspects of support for members included payments for burials and providing financial aid for widows and other family members of the deceased, finding apprenticeships for children to learn a trade, and paying tuition for members’ children if places in free schools were not available.
These FAS activities attached to Allen as a legacy of economic self-help that remained for subsequent centuries in African Methodism and that complemented his other emancipationist initiatives. The FAS, after the St. George incident, also became a venue through which Allen could start a church. The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas emerged out of the FAS and dedicated its edifice in 1794. Allen, increasingly uncomfortable with the FAS’s Quaker practices, declined an invitation to become the rector but endorsed the congregation’s second choice, Absalom Jones. He and Jones, however, stayed as close friends. They also buried the dead and executed other public health measures.
To encourage responsibility and create a common aid fund, the FAS asked members to pay dues of one shilling per month. If they failed to pay dues for three months, they were cut off from the society, no longer able to share in its benefits. The dues collected were the fund for the community service projects that the FAS organized. Among these was a food program to help support the community's poor and widowed.
Members in good standing could expect several benefits from the mutual aid fund. Particularly in the first years of the society, important aspects of support for members included payments for burials and providing financial aid for widows and other family members of the deceased, finding apprenticeships for children to learn a trade, and paying tuition for members’ children if places in free schools were not available.
The Free African Society was also responsible for issuing marriage licenses to black couples and for keeping birth records of blacks born in Philadelphia. The FAS also organized the first Masonic Lodge among black men in Philadelphia known as the African Lodge 459.
The society also took on the task of assisting the sick during the yellow fever epidemic in 1793. When affluent Philadelphians fled the city, the poor and middling classes, both white and black, remained behind to confront the ravages of the disease. Because the viral cause of yellow fever, incubated in putrid water puddles and transmitted through mosquitoes, was then unknown, the recommended treatment, though ineffectual, was bleeding. This ancient remedy drawn from the humoral theory had no effect upon the fever, the haemorrhaging, and the jaundice that afflicted the sufferers. Such public health measures as quarantine, immediate removal of corpses, and the disposal of mattresses and other items associated with the deceased, however, helped to reduce the spread of the plague. In response to pleas from physician Benjamin Rush, who taught Richard Allen and Absalom Jones how to bleed, and Philadelphia Mayor Matthew Clarkson, Allen and Jones volunteered to take care of the sick and bury the dead. Allen, who contracted the disease along with Jones, during the four months of the epidemic and amid 5,000 deaths, bled and comforted patients, hired nurses, purchased coffins, and employed laborers to aid in mortuary duties. Notwithstanding they encountered unusual danger and exhibited special empathy for yellow fever victims. Absalom Jones hired Sarah Bass(later to be Allen) as a nurse during the epidemic.
From its beginning, the FAS included several Quakers. For example, a Quaker named Joseph Clarke was appointed clerk and treasurer of the society. In 1789 the FAS began to incorporate various Quaker practices, such as a period of silence during meetings.
Disagreements arose about whether the affiliation would be Methodist or Anglican. By 1794, Allen and Jones’ religious differences caused to split although the two remained lifelong friends. Allen continued his Methodist ministry and in 1794 he found Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States. Jones, on the other hand, continued his Episcopalian ministry and founded the African Episcopal Church of Philadelphia The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas emerged out of the FAS
Though the Free African Society was not particularly long-lived, it spurred the creation of many similar African American mutual aid societies, more than one hundred in the Philadelphia region by 1838. The society’s mission of community building and assisting one another also contributed to the self-sufficiency of Philadelphia’s growing free black community.
PREAMBLE OF THE FREE AFRICAN SOCIETY
Philadelphia
Whereas, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, two men of the African race, who, for their religious life and conversation have obtained a good report among men, these persons, from a love to the people of their complexion whom they beheld with sorrow, because of their irreligious and uncivilized state, often communed together upon this painful and important subject in order to form some kind of religious society, but there being too few to be found under the like concern, and those who were, differed in their religious sentiments; with these circumstances they labored for some time, till it was proposed, after a serious communication of sentiments, that a society should be formed, without regard to religious tenets, provided, the persons lived an orderly and sober life, in order to support one another in sickness, and for the benefit of their widows and fatherless children.
ARTICLES.
[17th, 5th mo., 1787] — We, the free Africans and their descendants, of the City of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, or elsewhere, do unanimously agree, for the benefit of each other, to advance one shilling in silver Pennsylvania currency a month; and after one year's subscription from the date hereof, then to hand forth to the needy of this Society, if any should require, the sum of three shillings and nine pence per week of the said money: provided, this necessity is not brought on them by their own imprudence.
And it is further agreed, that no drunkard nor disorderly person be admitted as a member, and if any should prove disorderly after having been received, the said disorderly person shall be disjointed from us if there is not an amendment, by being informed by two of the members, without having any of his subscription money returned.
And if any should neglect paying his monthly subscription for three months, and after having been informed of the same by two of the members, and no sufficient reason appearing for such neglect, if he do not pay the whole the next ensuing meeting, he shall be disjointed from us, by being informed by two of the members its an offender, without having any of his subscription money returned.
Also, if any person neglect meeting every month, for every omission he shall pay three pence, except in case or sickness or any other complaint that should require the assistance of the Society, then, and in such a case, he shall be exempt from the fines and subscription during the said sickness.
Also, we apprehend it to be just and reasonable, that the surviving widow of a deceased member should enjoy the benefit of this Society so long as she remains his widow, complying with the rules thereof, excepting the subscriptions.
And we apprehend it to be necessary, that the children of our deceased members be under the care of the Society, so far as to pay for the education of their children, if they cannot attend the free school; also to put them out apprentices to suitable trades or places, if required.
Also, that no member shall convene the Society together; but, it shall be the sole business of the committee, and that only on special occasions, and to dispose of the money in hand to the best advantage, for the use of the Society, after they are granted the liberty at a monthly meeting, and to transact all other business whatsoever, except that of Clerk and Treasurer.
And we unanimously agree to choose Joseph Clarke to be our Clerk and Treasurer; and whenever another should succeed him, it is always understood, that one of the people called Quakers, belonging to one of the three monthly meetings in Philadelphia, is to be chosen to act as Clerk and Treasurer of this useful Institution.
The following persons met, viz., Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, Samuel Baston, Joseph Johnson, Cato Freeman, Caesar Cranchell, and James Potter, also William White, whose early assistance and useful remarks we found truly profitable. This evening the articles were read, and after some beneficial remarks were made, they were agreed unto.
Comments
Post a Comment